why do they say jesus was born on december 25

in addition: Among the many issues discussed Б and debated Б on JesusБ birth, is the Deus Sol Invictus festival and the theory according to which, the 25th of December was a date chosen by Christians to overlap a pagan festival with the celebrations of the LordБs nativity. However, in his book, Michele Loconsole attempts to discredit this stereotype. БHaving studied the sources of the time, it seems that exactly the opposite occurred. In actual fact, the pagan festival of Deus Sol Invictus was timed, or rather delayed, until the 25th of December, in an attempt to draw attention away from, or replace, the Christian festival celebrating the LordБs Christmas. Б Before 354 A. D. , during the reign of Licinius, the festival was celebrated in Rome on 19 December.

We can also say that this extremely ancient astronomical festival was celebrated in Rome and elsewhere at different times of the year, often between 19 and 22 October. The oldest source that discusses Christmas being on 25th December, is Hippolytus of Rome, who in 204, referred to the festival celebrated by Christians. The cult of the sun god was introduced to Rome by the emperor Heliogabalus, between 218 and 222, and was made official in 274 by emperor Aurelian, who on 25 December of that year, consecrated a temple dedicated to the cult of Sol invictus. And given that the feast of Sol Invictus was not celebrated by pagans only on 25 December and that this date was only given precedence over the others in the second half of the 4th century, БcanБt we legitimately assume that the festival of Sol Invictus in the Roman empireБs calendar was the result of a conscious wish of the establishment to replace or at least draw attention away from the Christian festival of Christmas, which had been definitely celebrated in Rome on 25 December for at least the previous 70 years?

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hope this proves interesting. Although millions of people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Dec. 25, most scholars agree that he wasn t born on that day, or even in the year 1 A. D. Researchers believe the settled on Dec. 25 for many reasons, such as that date s ties to the winter solstice and Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to the Roman deity Saturn.

By choosing this day to celebrate Jesus birthday, the church could co-opt the popular pagan festival, as well as the winter celebrations of other pagan religions. But nobody really knows exactly when Jesus was born. Some scholars think that he was born between 6 B. C. and 4 B. C. , based partly on the biblical story of Herod the Great. Not long before Herod s demise, which is believed to have occurred in 4 B. C. , the ruler of Judea supposedly ordered the death of all male infants who were under the age of two and lived in the vicinity of Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill Jesus. But historians disagree about Herod s actual year of death.

What s more, the horrific mass infanticide is legend, not fact, Reza Aslan, a biblical scholar and author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Random House, 2013), told. To pinpoint Jesus birth year, other scholars have tried to correlate the Star of Bethlehem, which supposedly heralded Jesus birth, with actual astronomical events. For example, in a 1991 article in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer Colin Humphreys proposed that the fabled star was actually a slow-moving comet, which Chinese observers recorded in 5 B. C. Scholars also debate the month of Jesus birth. In 2008, astronomer Dave Reneke argued that Jesus was born in the summer.

The Star of Bethlehem, Reneke told, may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky. Using computer models, Reneke determined that this rare event occurred on June 17, in the year 2 B. C. Other researchers have claimed that a similar conjunction, one between Saturn and Jupiter, occurred in October of 7 B. C. , making Jesus an autumn baby. Theologians have also suggested that Jesus was born in the spring, based on the biblical narrative that shepherds were watching over their flocks in the fields on the night of Jesus birth something they would have done in the spring, not the winter. Follow Joseph Castro on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook Google+.